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But the fast-growing burrito chain doesn’t care. The company’s indifference has been on display in recent days as it stands by its latest viral Web video, which portrays the industry as rampant with animal mistreatment and questionable production practices — all set to the haunting cover of “Pure Imagination” sung by Grammy-winner Fiona Apple.

The video, which has climbed to nearly 7 million combined views, is part of the 20-year-old, 1,500-plus location company’s Food With Integrity advertising campaign, which advocates sustainable, locally sourced and hormone-, antibiotic- and genetically modified organism-free products, while portraying other production practices in a negative light.

Chipotle claims to spend only 1.75 percent of its revenue on advertising — half of what most fast-food companies spend — and has seen its revenue grow 16 percent in the first half of 2013, compared with the same period last year.

However, one number is not going up for the burrito giant: friends in the agriculture industry.

“In general, this romanticized view of agriculture is not going to be able to feed the world,” said Tom Super, spokesman for the National Chicken Council, of what the industry sees as Chipotle pushing its ideals on consumers.

Chipotle’s latest video, in particular, has ruffled the feathers of the NCC, because it shows chickens being injected with what seem to be hormones even though those are not allowed in poultry production.

“I don’t know if it qualifies as an ad, but if it does, it’s false advertising,” Super said. “We are for choice in the marketplace. We have chicken producers who produce organic, natural, no antibiotic, but we don’t think it’s beneficial to demonize one product system over the other. We all need to work together.”

One of the most emotional moments of the video — a close-up showing the sad eyes of a cow in a crate — is also inaccurate, several groups pointed out.

“There’s a reason why it’s done in a cartoon because you won’t find that in a meatpacking plant,” said Eric Mittenthal, spokesman for the American Meat Institute. Mittenthal and other conventional agriculture supporters tweeted a “Funny or Die” parody that mocked the video as “emotional manipulation” cleverly used to sell burritos.

The agriculture industry fears that Chipotle, more than just influencing consumer behavior, could ultimately help drive policy either by bolstering the grass-roots good-food movement or by having the ear of members of Congress. Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) reintroduced a bill banning nontherapeutic uses of medically important antibiotics in food animal production earlier this year, but the proposal has yet to gain traction.

In the past, Chipotle founder Steve Ells has appeared on Capitol Hill to advocate Slaughter’s legislation because the top brass of the company feels antibiotics are overused in farm production. But Chipotle plans to continue its advocacy through advertising and stay out of formal lobbying and contributing to campaigns, company spokesman Chris Arnold told POLITICO.

“Our focus is on running restaurants, not dictating public policy,” he said.

“What we’re trying to do with these kinds of communications is bring people in through entertainment and leave them learning something that they didn’t know about issues in food before, so the idea is to spark conversations.”

“The idea is to get people to think. The idea is to get people to find more information. And that’s happening. And the reaction that you see to a film like this — both good and bad — is exactly the intention,” he said.

But major ag groups think Chipotle is refusing to engage in the conversation it hoped to start.